Anna's Treetop Home

My little apartment is level with the tops of the trees growing in the courtyard below, making it feel like a grown-up treehouse where my inner child can play and my inner adult can relax. My inner child loves the gnome collection, cotton-candy pink coffee table and "pretty pretty princess" French provincial furniture; my inner adult loves the all-day sunshine from the big south-facing windows, having separate areas for work, play, food and rest, and coming home to a space that is mine and mine alone.

Biggest Challenge of Living in a Small Space

I love throwing dinner parties, and I thought I'd have to give it up when I moved here. The kitchen was so tiny I had to replace the full-sized fridge with a mini to create counter space and avoid total claustrophobia, and as much as I rearranged furniture, I couldn't find the space for a dining table and chairs.

I figured nobody would want to come to a dinner party where they had to squat around a coffee table and climb over each other to get to the bathroom - until I started talking about it with friends and realized I wasn’t alone.

So, I got five small-apartment-dwelling friends together and started the Studio Supper Club. Every other Wednesday, one of us opens up her apartment and prepares a 3-course meal, and the rest show up with appetites and wine. It not only gives me the opportunity to entertain at home without feeling guilty about the space constraints, but to see how my friends have taken their small, cool spaces and made them their own.